High Flying
by seaglassgirl
Summary: The jerk who spilled coffee on me in the airport and caused me to almost miss my plane is now sitting next to me for my 14 hour flight. AU


So I've obviously been writing a lot of one shots recently. I like the idea of this story a lot, especially the premise, so I might make this a two-shot, but I'm sitll debating that due to my inability to actually finish a story.

Please tell me what you think!

 **Tessa**

The jerk who spilled coffee on me in the airport and caused me to almost miss my plane is now sitting next to me for my 14 hour flight. AU

* * *

 **High Flying**

Kairi hated long flights.

It wasn't that she hated traveling; ironically, she loved traveling. She loved to experience new people, places and things. She loved to immerse herself in a city or culture and grow from new experiences. She had chosen her job, a traveling journalist based on her love of writing and exploring new places. The only problem was the long flights.

You would think she would have gotten used to long flights after a few months, but sadly no. Her aversion towards flying for long periods of time had just grown. Flying had never been her thing. Her parents were frequent travelers and when she was younger, they had always dragged her along. At first, flights were fun; her parents would pack snacks, books and games for her, but after a particularly bad run-in with food poisoning on a plane ride, Kairi had never liked flying.

This simple fact was the reason she was quite grumpy as she sat in the small coffee shop located in the airport waiting to board her delayed flight. With a sugary iced drink on the table and her laptop in front of her, Kairi was utilizing her free time to email her editor. "Recoded" was a well-respected and well-known magazine that Kairi was lucky to have landed a job with straight after graduating college. Her editor, Ansem, was a nice guy, but he could be very demanding when it came to his journalists.

Kairi had finished her article on Agrabah, a huge city built in the middle of an immense desert, but he had asked her rewrite half of it. She loved her job, but it did get lonely sometimes. She didn't have anyone who traveled with her regularly (sometimes photographers tagged along but usually it was just her) and most of her friends were back at her home town, Radiant Garden, getting married, having kids and building stable lives with others.

The thought of marriage brought Kairi back to the reason for her delayed flight: her college roommate and childhood best friend, Namine, was getting married in two days and Kairi had been asked to be the maid of honor. Kairi had been a surprised when her friend had asked her, mostly because a maid of honor was supposed to help plan out wedding details and bachelorette parties and while Kairi was more than willing to help with anything Namine needed, she also was constantly traveling. However, Namine had proved herself mature and organized and had needed no help in planning out everything down to a tee. All Kairi had been tasked with was being present at a few events, helping Namine with a color scheme and, of course, being there on the big day.

"Flight number 224 bound for Radiant Garden is scheduled to start boarding in fifteen minutes. Any passengers not in terminal B-34, please make your way to the terminal to begin boarding."

Hearing the announcement for her flight, Kairi quickly packed up her laptop and made her way out of the coffee shop. As much as she hated long flights, she also hated delayed flights so the sooner she got on the plane, the sooner she got off. She couldn't wait to see all of her old friends and watch her best friend marry the love of her life, Roxas. Roxas was a sweet guy who Namine had met a few years ago at the coffee shop down the street from their college campus. The story was very cute and very romantic: Roxas worked as a barista and Namine went every morning to get coffee before her 8 AM class. One morning, Roxas wrote his number on the paper coffee cup and Namine went back to the shop the next day, cup in hand, to ask why someone had put their number on her skinny vanilla latte. Roxas had (embarrassingly) explained the fact that he had a major crush on the cute art major that always ordered a skinny vanilla latte, and had been trying to ask her out. The rest was history.

"Yeah so that's my flight, I'll call you when I land. You're picking me up at the airport right? Okay just-" Kairi's wedding thoughts were rudely interrupted as some guy ran into her. The two head collided and suddenly there was coffee everywhere and her laptop was on the floor and his duffle bag was soaked and-

"What the hell?!" Kairi demanded as hot coffee soaked her shirt. Looking up, she was met with the sight of a young man, probably around her age, with an iced coffee dripping off the locks of his spikey brown hair. Confusion passed through his face as he realized what had just occurred. Kairi rubbed her head and cursed her luck as the stranger began to get up.

"Someone needs to watch where she's going…" he mumbled, annoyance lacing his voice. As Kairi heard his snarky comment, her anger flared up. He had run into her. There was no doubt about it. This incident could have been avoided if _he_ had paid attention!

"Excuse me?" She accused as she grabbed her bag and stood up. As the man turned to look at her, Kairi finally was able to see his face. Light blue eyes contrasted with tan skin. He had young looking face, but he was definitely her age or older. His light brown hair, despite being wet from the coffee, was sticking up at odd angles. Kairi felt her stomach do a backflip as their eyes met and she prayed that she wasn't blushing. If he hadn't just run into her and spilled coffee on her, she might have thought he was cute.

"You heard me." He challenged meeting her eyes with sass. Kairi's temper flared up as the words left his mouth.

"No," Kairi countered, "I was watching where I was going. You weren't! If this is anyone's fault it's yours. I don't even know why this is an argument, you clearly ran into me!"

"Well maybe if-" he started to argue back but Kairi cut him off.

"Look, I have to get to my flight. Have a nice life jerk." Turning her back on the dickhead, Kairi marched to her gate and began to board her flight. Airports were terrible and this incident only made Kairi hate flying even more. The only upside was that when she got to her seat (the window seat of course) she found the seat next to her was empty. Putting her carry-on bag in the upper compartment, she prayed that the flight would go by fast and that no one would take the seat next to her. Sitting down, she looked outside as the workers loaded the plane.

Who was that jerk and where did he get off saying she ran into him? Clearly he had run into her. He should have apologized, as any normal human being would have done in that situation; however, he had turned out to be some arrogant prick. Whatever. It was over and she would probably never see him again.

"Oh hell no," an eerily familiar voice grabbed her attention. Looking up, she swore that her life was a joke. The jerk from the coffee shop was standing in the aisle, glaring directly at her.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded. If this jerk was stalking her, she was going to drop kick his cute ass out of this plane.

"What are _you_ doing here?" he countered, eyes narrowed.

"I asked you first!" she shouted back. Cute ass or not, this guy was proving himself to be scum.

"I'm boarding my flight to Radiant Garden! Why are you in the seat next to mine?" He shouted back. Her eyes widened in horror at the terrible realization. It was official: her life was a joke.

"Because this is my seat!" Kairi shouted back. At this, his eyes became the size of saucers. The two adults stared at each other in horror.

"Excuse me sir," A flight attendant interrupted, "I need you to take your seat. Our fourteen hour flight is going to start soon."

"Miss," Kairi interrupted, "Is there anyway I can change seats? This jerk spilled coffee on me, then blamed me for it, and I really don't think I can stand sitting next to him for the next fourteen hours."

"Excuse me," the man explained with a glare painted on his face, "You spilled coffee on me. If anyone should get to change seats, it's me."

"Actually, neither one of you will get to change seats." the flight attendant explained with a blindingly bright smile before walking away.

"I'm not making it out of this plane with my sanity intact." Kairi breathed as she thought of the unpleasant plane ride she was subjected to. The man robotically put his coffee stained duffel bag in the overhead compartment and took his seat next to her. Thankfully, or not thankfully, they were in a two seated row so another person would not be subjected to hearing them fight.

"Of all the girls in the freaking airport…" Sora breathed.

"You had to be a jerk to the one you're going to spend the next fourteen hours with." Kairi finished for him, flashing a malicious smile his way.

"I'm not the one being a jerk, _you_ ran into _me_." He seethed back. Choosing to ignore the repetitive comment, Kairi just looked out the window and put her headphones in her ears. As the plane began to take off, Kairi found the man next to her was busy fumbling with his phone. Choosing to continue to ignore him, Kairi closed her eyes and attempted to fall asleep.

However, after fifteen minutes, Kairi found her patience to be wearing thin. The guy next to her wouldn't stop tapping his finger or shaking his leg. Normally, she could ignore weird tics, but this was the jerk from the coffee shop and therefor, he was annoying the crap out of her.

"Can you stop?" She asked, pulling out her headphones and opening her eyes. Freezing, the young man stopped tapping his finger and looked at her with wide eyes. She was sure she looked like a psychopath: with her hair in a jumbled bun on her head and frustration etched into her face, but she couldn't found that she just could not, for the life of her, ignore how annoying he was being.

"Stop what?" The man asked innocently.

"This whole…" she started, motioning her hands wildly, "tapping thing you got going on!" Instead of getting mad, he just continued to stare at her in disbelief. She found herself unable to hold his stare for more than a few seconds and instead averted her eyes to look down at her hands.

"Uh," he started sheepishly, "I'm sorry about the tapping, it's just I have a fear of flying so its just something I do automatically. I actually didn't mean to bother you." Sincerity leaked into his voice, and Kairi found herself feeling very ashamed. Having a phobia sucked and by the tone of his voice, she was sure he wasn't lying. "That's why I was so rude to you," He started again, "I just get really anxious and on-edge when I have a long flight ahead of me. I'm sorry if I came off as a jerk." Looking up at him, Kairi had no choice but to accept his apology. She had been on edge too.

"It's okay," she carefully agreed, "I was on edge too. Honestly, I hate long flights, I'm super stressed out because of my boss and my best friend and I was rushing. I'm sorry if I was bitchy to you."

"Its okay," he accepted peacefully. Looking at him, Kairi felt her cheeks heat up; he wasn't a jerk, but he was cute. He had a sweet face with big blue eyes that made her feel comfortable. His skin was very tan, making him look like he was glowing, and his lips were full. He was very handsome and his smile was warm and infectious. Maybe this plane ride wouldn't be so awful.

"Since we have another 13 and a half hours, might as well make the most of it!" Kairi suggested, flashing him a small smile and sticking out her hand she introduced herself: "I'm Kairi Kisgaragi." A warm smile broke out on his face as she introduced herself and Kairi found she could not stop her herself from smiling back.

"Sora Strife," he announced shaking her hand. His hands were much bigger than hers and a lot more calloused, but Kairi couldn't help but blush as he squeezed her small hands. "So Kairi, why do you hate flying?"

"Well," Kairi explained, "I was really young, and my parents and I were on some super long plane ride. I had eaten something bad, and spent the next twenty hours throwing up in the tiny bathroom on the plane. Ever since then I've just hated it."

"Oh that's gross…" Sora agreed, scrunching up his face in disgust, "Being cramped up in that tiny little bathroom for twenty hours just puking your guts up? Yeah I would hate flying too."

"Your turn." Kairi stated.

"Okay well, I don't really know." Sora nervously recalled. Kairi blanched at his half-hearted confession.

"No," She argued, "That's not fair; I just told you about how I puked up my guts fro hours on end, I want a real answer!"

"Okay, okay," Sora appeased, "You have a point. I probably wouldn't have told a complete stranger about my childhood trauma, but since you did I guess it's only fair I try to open up to you about my flying phobia." With a light pink blush dusted across her cheeks, Kairi nodded and waited for him to continue. "I guess it stems from a fear of this plane crashing? I don't know really. I've always heard of planes crashing so the first time I rode on an airplane I thought I was going to die. Also I only recently started flying a lot; when I was younger I never really traveled."

"Well that makes sense," She conceded, "Why are you traveling now?"

"My job," he explained as he lifted his other carry on from under his seat, "I'm a photographer." Sora pulled out a huge camera and turned it on.

"What do you take pictures of?" Kairi inquired.

"I mostly freelance with travel magazines or newspapers," he explained, showing Kairi some of his pictures. Scrolling through the beautiful pictures, Kairi noticed the most recent pictures were from Agrabah, the beautiful city they had flown out of. "I always wanted to explore the world, but my parents never really liked to travel. The whole photography thing is something I had always done and then when I figured out how to combine them, it was like I struck gold."

"These are really good," Kairi breathed. Sora smiled warmly as the girl continued to look through his camera roll. Sora knew he was acting like a love-struck teenager, but the redhead next to him was nothing short of beautiful. Her skin was slightly tanned, and her dark red hair was lush and full.

"Wait," Sora asked, "what are you doing in Agrabah?"

"I'm a journalist," the girl explained, still looking through the photos, "I was writing an article on the palace for the magazine I work for. I was supposed to be there for another week, but my best friend is getting married and I couldn't miss that!"

A nagging feeling of familiarity tugged at Sora. He too had cut his trip short due to his twin-brother's wedding. He was sure his brother, Roxas, had mentioned something about the maid of honor being a traveling journalist, but he wasn't too sure.

Dismissing that thought, he dove into conversation with the redhead beside him. They had another thirteen hours to go, and Sora found himself enjoying his conversation with the spunky girl with a coffee-stained shirt.


End file.
